Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital
Great Indian food at this Annandale restaurant
We spent the last part of our trip to Washington DC visiting my friend Lavinia in Annandale, a DC suburb in Virginia. Curry Mantra is her favorite Indian restaurant in the area and that’s where we headed that Friday evening in February.
It was a bit late, and the restaurant wasn’t very busy. It’s nicely and only a bit garishly decorated with red tones. Service was good, though our waitress had problems understanding and remembering our order and we had to suggest she write it down. I’m in awe of very experienced waiters who are able to remember everything, but it’s not something that most wait staff should attempt to do.
As there were six of us for dinner, we tried a variety of dishes. I didn’t take any photos as the evening was about seeing an old friend and didn’t want to be too intrusive.
The samosas ($7) had your regular vegan potato and pea filling, but were much larger than usual. Everyone liked them quite a bit but they were on the spicy side. The chicken tikka ($18) was moist and flavorful, and I enjoyed it very much.
I ordered the lamb shashi korma ($20), and was quite pleased with the mild, sweet and fruity curry. That is, until I tried the butter chicken ($18), which was absolutely delicious. One of the best butter chickens I’ve had. Lavinia also ordered the Chicken 65 ($18), one of her favorites, but I don’t remember if I tried it or what I thought of it. I am not sure if we ordered another meat dish – but in any case, we had more than enough food to feed the five meat eaters in our party.
The vegetarian among us ordered the
I ordered a sweet lassi ($5), not on printed the menu, and while the server had some problems understanding what I wanted, I eventually got it and it was pretty good. We ordered both garlic nan ($4) and shahi nan ($4) and enjoyed both of them.
In all, if I’m ever in Annandale visiting Lavinia again, I’ll definitely make sure we go there.
Curry Mantra
9984 Main St
Fairfax, VA
(703) 218-8128
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